Puzzle



INVENTOR F750 61 Dusrnv BY I ATTORNEY F. G. DUSTIN PUZZLE Filed Feb.2'7, 1933 5/ Fig.

Ill lfllllllll Hlll lllllill Ill March 5, 1935.

Patented Mar. 5, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 4 Claims.

This invention relates to puzzles for the amusement, mental development,and edification of both children and adults, and the primary object isto provide a device of simple and economical construction that willanswer such purposes. More specifically the puzzle comprises a frame orreceptacle providing a restricted enclosure for a series of playingpieces that are selectively shiftable into various positions, andprovided with identification characters, all to the end that a player oroperator may, with a certain degree of mental activity and patience,move the pieces from one predetermined or set arrangement to anotherpredetermined or desired arrangement, and without lifting or removingany of the playing pieces from the board.

In the accompanying drawing, which illustrates a preferred embodiment ofthe invention, the six illustrations, Figs. 1 to 6, inclusive, are planviews of the puzzle with the playing piecesin various group positions.

Fig. '7 is a sectional view on the line 7-7 in Fig. 5; and Fig. 8 is aperspective detail view of one of the playing pieces.

Referring to the drawing more particularly and by reference characters,A generally designates a game board or frame having an upstanding outerflange portion B defining a rectangular and preferably square playingfield C, which in the present instance is lined as at D in checker boardfashion to provide a plurality of playing squares upon which the playingpieces rest.

The playing pieces E, of which there are seven in the presentarrangement, are generally of a figure eight contour so as to havecircular end portions that are integrally formed so as to provide singleplaying pieces of a double unit character. The playing pieces areprovided upon their upper faces with identifying characters of anysuitable nature, but which in the present instance comprise numbersrunning in pairs from 1 to 14, inclusive. In addition to the sevendouble unit playing pieces E, I also provide a single unit playing pieceF which is circular and of a size corresponding to one end portion ofone of the playing pieces E. The piece F in the present instance isidentified by the number imprinted thereon, as shown.

The arrangement thus far-described shows that the playing field C willbe substantially covered by the playing pieces except for a singlesquare adjacent the playing piece 15, with a result that one of thedouble unit pieces adjacent the vacant square may be moved into thespace either by a direct endwise movement or by an angular or turningmovement. In other words, the piece l3l4 as shown in Fig. 5 could bemoved into the vacant square by being moved lengthwise to the right; or,thevacant space could be filled by moving the piece 78 in a quarter turnand downwardly; or, the single piece 15 couldbe moved into the vacantsquare to provide room for a movement of the piece 11-12 to the right.

By. thus moving one piece after another into the successively occurringvacant squares it will readily be seen that all of the playing piecesare subject to being moved about within the frame and without beinglifted therefrom.

It should be noted that the playing pieces have sumcient play or freedomwithin the frame to permit their being moved about without any bindingaction as long as the endwise and turning movements above referred toare followed. It should be noted, however, that the frame issufficiently restrictive so as to prevent almost any other kind ofmovement. It is possible, with'a certain arrangement of the pieces, asindicated in Fig. 4, to place certain of them in angular positions, and,in fact, such movements are necessary to the solution of the problemwhich will presently be described. Such movements, however, are notordinarily anticipated by a person unfamiliar with the puzzle, and, infact the. main purpose of the checker board lineations is to distractthe operators mind from seeking a solution by any other than straight orright angular movements of the playing pieces. I

If it be assumed that the problem presented for solution is, to convertthe playing pieces from the order of arrangement shown in Fig. 1 to thereversed or properly readable arrangement as shown in Fig. 6, then theprocess of normal solution would require the orderly movement of thepieces along the squares or markings; and while this series of movementsdoes not necessarily need to follow any complete predetermined plan, thetime required for reversing the positions of the pieces will dependlargely upon the systematic process employed.

Ordinarily there is presented no particular difficulty in merelyrearranging the pieces so that their chronology will be reversed. It isfound, however, that almost invariably, if notalways, there will be atleast one of the units that will rest in a reversed or up side downposition.

At this time, or during the preceding movements, it may occur to theoperator to attempt a proper positioning of any of the pieces by a moreor less scrambling of some or all of the pieces within the playing area.If the frame is sufficiently large this of course may be done, andconsequently the solution to the problem is greatly simplified. If,however, the frame is sulficiently restrictive this general scramblingis not possible, and consequently the solution to the problem becomesmuch more difficult.

When the frame is of such a size as to be most restrictive consistentwith the possible solution of the problem, there is, as already pointedout, no particular difficulty in so moving the pieces so as to reversetheir entire arrangement. When the rearrangement has been completed,however, there will, as also pointed out, invariably be at least onepiece that is reversed end for end so that its characters will be upside down.

For purpose of explaining the method of revers ing any such piece it maybe assumed that all of the pieces have been rearranged andare in propersequence and position with the exception of the double unit playingpiece indicated as 13-14, which is in its proper place but inverted, asshown in Fig. 2. The problem now is to reverse the piece 1314 from theposition shown in Fig. 2 to the proper position as shown in Fig. 6, andthis is done by first moving pieces 9-40, ll--l2, and 13-14 to thevertical positions shown in Fig. 3. The second step is to drop the rightend of the piece 7--8 down far enough so that the pieces 1112 and l3l4may be shifted to parallel positions withrespect to the piece 78, butdiagonally with respect to the frame, as shown in Fig. 4. At this pointit should be noted that the piece 1314 is of such a length that it canonly be turned on its own axis by passingbetween the pieces 5-6 and 15,and the opening between these last mentioned pieces is such that thepiece 13-14 will only pass by very snug fit or contact therewith. Atsuch time it may also be noted that in order to provide for the smallestpossible frame it will also be necessary that the pieces l--2 and 56will be in close contact with each other, and with the upper left-handcorner of the frame.

When the piece 1314= has been partially rotated on its own axis in acounterclockwise direction, and without having its general positionshifted, then it becomes a comparatively simple matter to move thepieces into the positions shown in Fig. 5, and from thence into thefinal position shown in Fig. 6 where it will be seen that all the piecesare in their proper positions.

It may here be noted that while the piece 15 is shown in the presentinstance as being of a size corresponding to the end portions of thevarious double unit playing pieces, a smaller piece 15 may be employed,in which instance the frame A can be still more restricted without inany way interfering with the normal movement of the pieces, thus furtheradding to the diiiiculty of solving the puzzle.

It will further be understood that while a certain problem has beendescribed in the foregoing specification, still other problems may beworked with the device, and if letters are used instead of the figuresfor identifying the pieces, certain predetermined words or even shortsentences might be the ultimate thing sought for.

It is still further understood that various other modifications of theinvention may be made with out departing from the spirit and scope ofthe appended claims. Having now therefore fully illustrated anddescribed my invention, what I claim to be new and desire to protect byLetters Patent is:

l. A puzzle comprising a plate member with a marginal portion extendingthereabove to form a restricted substantially rectangular playingsurface on the plate member, and a series of playing pieces resting onsaid surface within said marginal portion, and selectively havingfreedom for turning or endwise movements to effect a change in onepredetermined arrangement of the series toanother without said piecesbeing lifted from the surface, all but one of said playing pieces beingelongated in form, and having lateral recesses to facilitate saidturning movements.

2. A puzzle comprising a frame having a restricted substantiallyrectangular playing surface,

and a series of playing pieces resting on said surface and adapted to bemoved in straight and curved paths from one predetermined arrangement toanother without being lifted from the surface, all but one of saidplaying pieces being of lengths substantially twice as great as theirwidths, and said last mentioned playing pieces having rounded ends andcooperative lateral recesses to permit certain predetermined turningmovements of the pieces.

3. A puzzle comprising a support having a playing surface, playingpieces resting on the surface for movement from one group arrangement toanother without being lifted from the surface, certain of said playingpieces being composed of peripherally joined circular end portions andhaving lateral recesses intermediate said portions -whereby the endportions of certain pieces may engage in recesses of other pieces tothereby permit turning movements of certain of the playing pieces whenWorking the puzzle.

4. A puzzle having a restricted playing surface and a series of playingpieces movable about on the surface, said pieces being of greater lengththan width and having substantially circular integrally connected endportions, with lateral recesses in the playing pieces intermediate theend portions.

FRED G. DUSTIN.

